In A Taste of Home filmmaker David Yun attempts to reconcile the feelings of alienation he experienced while growing up in a suburban Detroit town with the emotions felt after returning home to care for his terminally ill mother. Combining landscape cinematography with a highly personal voiceover, A Taste of Home documents the filmmaker’s changing relationship with his hometown under these new sets of circumstances while relating to larger questions of identity and our always changing relationships to our familial and communal histories.

Prada Handbag

Stuart Vauvert

Australia 22 min.

Short narrative

What’s a girl to do when a rare hair-loss condition leaves her with an obsession for zany wigs and make-up? Become a drag queen, of course! Prada Hamburg, child of the famous shoe designer, may not have any hair, but she does have a fabulous wig collection. Having always been an outsider, Prada finally finds her niche when she lands a job at a kooky drag bar full of colorful characters – a world of sequins, feathers and false eyelashes – and assumes the new identity of Prada Handbag.

Members Only

Dir. Carolina Roca-Smith

U.S.A. 10 min.

Short narrative

Amy, the new kid in town, canâ€™t seem to get a dateâ€¦. Or even a woman to look in her direction until she meets power lesbian, Joan Fox. Joan isnâ€™t interested in love, but does have a corner on the market. Luckily for Amy, itâ€™s for sale.â€™

Casting Pearls illustrates the difficulties transsexual women face in Hollywood via a hectic series of auditions endured by Cassandra, a transsexual actress (played by Calpernia Addams). Cassandra weathers the horrible, funny and cruel things said by various Hollywood professionals with plucky determination and professionalism, showing that decades of bias can’t hold back the real contributions of transgender people to the arts and media.

Tokens is an experimental narrative that explores the intersection of sexuality and Mormonism at a pivotal moment in a young womanâ€™s life.

Trans Neptune

Dir. Matthew Long

Canada 14 min.

Short narrative

Drag Queen Cosmonauts: It was the marketing coup of the century, a publicity stunt broadcast live around the globe. For a moment it seemed the public was interested in Space again. But who could have guessed at the calamity that the crew of the Space Vessel Xanadine would unlock at the far edge of the solar system? Viruses. Fast Acting. Lethal. Now, with mankind infected, society all but collapsed, and a price on her head, Pandora, the last of the Drag Queen Cosmonauts, takes solace in the only hope left: smoking Space Gas. Is it a cure, or a potent addiction?

The Athens International Film and Video Festival was founded in 1974, and since then has presented independent films from around the world. The Festival is sponsored by the Athens Center for Film and Video, a project of the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University.